Friday I decided to spend the day visiting the great Cathedrals of Dublin, as well as crossing off Dublin Castle and the Book of Kells from my to-see list.

First was the The Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition. The Book of Kells portion of the exhibition featured a couple of big rooms that you walk through which explain what the Book of Kells is, who wrote it, the methods used in creation, and details about other illuminated manuscripts (a couple of which are also on display). In the end of the exhibit, in a dark room, you finally get to actually see the Book of Kells, under glass and open to an illuminated page. It was pretty cool to see such a famous book, and I think I can safely say it’s the oldest book I’ve ever seen. Now it was the Book of Kells that really drew my interest to this location, but I was in for quite a treat when I walked upstairs to the Long Room for the Old Library portion of the exhibit. From the site: “The main chamber of the Old Library is the Long Room, and at nearly 65 metres in length, it is filled with 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books. “ It was beautiful! While I probably will get an ebook reader one of these days, I still am firmly in the “I like to touch books” camp.

It was then off to Dublin Castle. It was the one thing on my list I already felt somewhat familiar with because MJ sent me pictures and told me about it the last time he was in Dublin, but there is nothing like seeing it for yourself. It was built in the 1200s on the orders of King John of England and throughout the centuries it primarily was the seat of British rule within the country. Since the formation of the Irish Free State it’s now a major Irish government building, the inauguration of the Irish president happens here, among other things.

The original castle lasted until the 1600s when it was rebuilt to be the structure we largely see today. Only one of the original record tower remaining standing today. However, excavations of the site unearthed the foundations of a second “Powder” tower and one of the archways which used to stretch over the River Poddle. The tour guide also pointed out what deeper excavations showed, what they believe to be part of the original fortifications that the vikings put in place on that location even earlier than the original towers.

My next stop was Christ Church Cathedral. I am not a Christian, but cathedrals have always fascinated me. This fascination turned into awe as I got older and could further appreciate the exceptional amount of work and artistry that was put into them by people in times past who didn’t have access to the technology we have today.

The inside of the cathedral was stunning, huge stained glass windows, the amazing architecture you come to expect from such places, and probably the most welcoming staff I’d encountered on my already exceptionally welcoming trip!

Aside from the typical splendor of a grand cathedral, Christ Church has some interesting artifacts, the first being a holy relic – the preserved heart of St Laurence O’Toole. Earlier in my trip Laura had told me that the head of another religious figure was in a cathedral we passed, and not knowing much about Catholic lore it struck me as somewhat macabre. It turns out that it’s very common for these old European catholic churches to have them and in the faith they are regarded as a source of miracles. Still a bit creepy for me but at least I had an explanation.

A less spiritual duo also graces the halls of Christ Church Cathedral – a cat and rat which became trapped in an organ pipe in the 1850s and were mummified. They are now on display downstairs in the crypt, where there is also a coffee shop.

It was then time for lunch! I stopped at Legends Bar for a nice sandwich and drink.

The other famous cathedral on my list was Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Another gorgeous church full of Irish history, it also boasts a beautiful park just next to it.

Perhaps their most famous burial is that of Jonathan Swift, a cleric who became Dean of Saint Patrick’s and is most famous as the author of the popular Gulliver’s Travels. In the center of the church you can see his burial plate.

I took a TON more photos during the day, which are over in my Dublin flickr gallery.

By the time I had finished visiting Saint Patrick’s I was pretty tired, so I headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit. When MJ got back from work we headed out to the second of three “formerly something else and now a bar” places I went to in Dublin – The Bank on College Green. Of course this used to be a bank! I enjoyed my first Bulmers Cider of the trip (after completely forgetting it existed for the first half of my trip, I love British Isles cider!) and a wonderful Guinness and beef pie.

We wrapped up the evening with a stop at The Porterhouse Brewery Central location on the way to our hotel. I snagged their red ale since ales tend to be what I prefer, but I wasn’t a huge fan. Luckily they were able to redeem themselves the following night when I tried their fantastic porter.

On Wednesday I took my Aunt Mary Ellen’s advice and booked a Wild Wicklow Tour for the day. I have to extend thanks in her direction for all the great tips for this trip, plus thanks to my friend Scott Sweeny who had lots of great ideas following his recent honeymoon in Irleand (and posted some great photos!), and finally to Mark Murphy, the son-in-law of one of the people I work with who is from Ireland and had a huge email full of ideas.

Booking online I was able to get a pickup spot at our hotel, so pre-9AM I was outside waiting for the bus, which arrived on-time. We had a nice ride through the city where the bus driver gave us the all kinds of tour-guidey facts about the city, and from there we headed to our first stop, Dun Laoghaire.

It was a cool morning so the stop was quite refreshing and I was struck with how similar the coast of Ireland looks and feels like the coast of Maine.

From there it was a quick stop at the Avoca Kilmacanogue store and cafe for refreshments before getting back on the road to head deeper into Wicklow. Our first mountain stop was to look over a magnificent valley where one of the Guinness estates is located. It was also during this stop where the driver cracked open the Jameson and gave tastings to everyone on the bus – before lunch!

Along our journey the bus took us through several small villages, up very narrow winding roads, past sheep, cows, horses, donkeys, and more sheep. Our tour guide told us about the area and share stories from the Irish past. It was during this tour that I learned the most about the Great Famine, I was surprised to learn that during the the 1841 census the population of Ireland was 8.2 million – today it’s just 6.2 million (both of these statistics include both the Republic and Northern Ireland). I certainly knew that the famine was a bad one, but I was never really knew quite what the scale of starvation and mass emigration out of Ireland was, or that even today the population hasn’t recovered.

Lunch was in the village of Laragh at Lynhams of Laragh. They have a carvery very well-suited to busloads of travelers, quickly processing the queue of hungry travelers and allowing us plenty of time to eat so we could be on our way in under an hour. I went with the Irish experience for lunch – half pint of Guinness and some Guinness and beef stew with mashed potatoes.

We wrapped up lunch around 2 and headed off to the longest stop of the day – the ruins of an old Monastic Village in Glendalough. I love ruins, always have. Growing up on the coast of Maine I had endless adventures in the old castle and military ruins at Fort Williams and it was honestly a dream come true when an exhibit opened at Two Lights State Park one summer that allowed you entry into one of the old underground WWII battery bunkers located there.

Exploring the ruins of this old monastery was fascinating! Our visit began with our tour guide giving us a quick tour of the grounds, explaining what each of the buildings was and was used for, and that the cemetery itself was still an active one, with about 5 or so family plots still open, but was expected to close in the coming years as those final spots are filled. Once the guided portion was finished we had over an hour to explore on our own, which is when I took the photos and then decided to take the long walk down around the lakes.

I put more photos over in my Dublin Flickr gallery.

We headed back toward Dublin around 4PM, arriving back by 5:30PM. MJ was still at work so I took the opportunity of a free hour to take a short nap before meeting up for dinner with MJ and some of his co-workers. Dinner was at The Schoolhouse Restaurant, which had been pointed out as an old school on the Viking tour on Monday. Amusingly this was the first of three times in Dublin we enjoyed refreshments in a building that had a previous purpose but was turned into a restaurant and bar. Instead of mixing things up, my dinner also ended up being Guinness, beef and potatoes – although in the less traditionally Irish form of a cheeseburger and fries.

Thursday ended up being full of Guinness, Jameson and prison, but luckily not in that order.

After the zoo on Tuesday, Laura and I headed over to the Google Dublin office to meet up with a friend of hers for lunch (and got to have lunch with MJ too!). From there we split up and she headed over to Trinity Capital Hotel to do her second Ubuntu Open Week presentation while I headed off to the brand new National Leprechaun Museum.

My walk to the museum gave me my first proper walk down O’Connell Street, home of the Spire of Dublin, the famous General Post Office. the O’Connell Monument, and loads of big chain stores.

But the Leprechauns were my destination!

The Leprechaun Museum was an interesting one. The tour starts out with an admission that the museum does not actually have any leprechauns, and it ends up being an experience in Irish Folklore. It’s somewhat guided, beginning in a room loaded with all kinds of leprechaun-related books and goodies.

From there you walk through a series of rooms, each taking you through portions of leprechaun and other Irish folklore. The first couple “shrink” you to the size of a leprechaun and bring you into a room where the table and chairs are big enough that you feel like you’re 1/3 the height of a regular person.

From there it’s on to storytelling rooms (real storytellers and recorded audio), a well, a pot of gold, and a classic leprechaun story decorating walls of another room. Throughout you are reminded of the light and dark sides of Irish folklore, fairies who are not always fair, flawed and powerful heroes. In all, a delightful little museum.

When I wrapped up at the museum I met up with Laura again and after a drink we headed out to the town of Howth on the coast.

I love the ocean, and growing up on the coast not too far from several local fishers and some major tourist attractions I have a soft spot for towns like Howth, and we arrived just in time for a magnificent sunset and took a walk down along the water and two a couple of lighthouses.

We rounded off the evening by having dinner at The Oar House in Howth, where Laura graciously put up with my want for seafood and I ordered a giant plate of mussels. My favorite!

I’ve got at least 3 more posts about Ireland before I’m done! But I have to say now, I loved Dublin. It’s extremely easy to get around without a car, extraordinarily tourist friendly and for once as an American visitor in a strange land I didn’t feel brushed off by the locals (I’ll never forget the guy in London who cheerfully informed me upon making a train ticket purchase that he, at least, doesn’t hate the yanks, gee thanks?).

Wednesday I headed off to the Wicklow mountains…

With all the hours of travelling under our belts and not a whole lot of sleep, not much else happened tourism-wise on Sunday night after the Ubuntu 10.10 release party in Dublin. On Monday morning MJ and I enjoyed a quick breakfast together before he had to head off to work and I to meet up with Laura Czajkowski to start my sight-seeing! I have to say, while Dublin is quite the tourist-friendly city, having a local to spend a couple of days with and show me around was quite a treat, not to mention that Laura just plain rocks. The first thing on the list was a Viking Splash Tour, since Laura had never been on it and in spite of them existing in cities all over the world, I’d never actually been on a DUKW tour either. It was a fun tour with a lively and pun-filled tour guide. The water portion of it was quite short, just bringing us around the end of the grand canal, but it was enough to enjoy a breeze and a bit of a splash as we entered the water.

From there it was lunch at Hairy Lemon Cafe, where I went for fish and chips and ended up with their excellent soup and sandwich lunch. From there it was a lovely walk around town, my first ride on the Luas, and walk around the grounds of the National Museum which was, alas, closed on Mondays.

We then headed down to Trinity Capital Hotel bar so Laura could prep and give her Ubuntu Open Week presentation on IRC. It was a great little place for such a break, free wifi, comfy seats, and they will bring drinks for as long as you want to order them (although I admit only drinking soda on this occasion). MJ met us at the bar so we could head out to dinner over at The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland (est 1198), where I actually did have fish and chips, and my second (and third) Guinness of my trip.

A wonderful finish to my apparently very viking-themed Dublin day!

Tuesday was on to the zoo and to search for leprechauns, but that will have to wait for another blog post!